Traveling toy

ABSTRACT

A miniature toy vehicle having wheels powered by a spiral spring to move the vehicle over a ground surface, the spring being wound by a vertically movable bar having rack teeth engaging a pinion in a series of pinions which transmits vertical downward movement of the bar to store energy in the spring and then transmits said energy to the ground wheels when the bar is released and a second spring yieldably retaining the bar in a raised position.

[ Nov. 18, 1975 United States Patent [191 Nakata FOREIGN PATENTS ORAPPLICATIONS TRAVELING TOY [75] Inventor:

Toyotaro Nakata, Yasuzuka 25,288 6/1883 Germany 46/67 444,352 3/1936United Kingdom.............t....... 46/67 Mibumachi, Japan [73]Assignee: Tonka Corporation, Hopkins, Minn.

[22] Filed:

Apr. 22, 1974 Primary Examiner-Hugh R. Chamblee Assistant ExaminerJ. Q.Lever Attorney, Agent, or FirmDouglas L. Carlsen [57] ABSTRACT Aminiature toy vehicle having wheels powered by a spiral spring to movethe vehicle over a ground sur- 21 Appl. No.: 462,788

52 us. 46/206; 46/206 51 Int. A6311 17/00 46/67 69 face, the springbeing wound by a vertically movable bar having rack teeth engaging apinion in a series of [58] Field of Search.........

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US. Patent Nov. 18, 1975 Sheet2of2 3,919,804

TRAVELING TOY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relatesgenerally to wind-up miniature toy vehicles wherein some mechanism isprovided for storing energy in a spiral'spring and which when releasedwill transfer the energy to the vehicle wheels to propel the vehicleover a ground or floor. surface.

In heretofore known toy vehicles of this type the power spring hasgenerally been wound by a hand key or by moving the driven wheelsthemselves over a floor surface. Such means are relatively slow andsometimes cumbersome or inoperable by very young children of the agemost likely to play with this type of toy.

It is accordingly desirable that a wind-up toy vehicle be providedwherein the loading of the driving spiral spring is quickly and easilyaccomplished merely by moving an operating bar mounted on the vehicle ina vertical direction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION With the foregoing objective and others in viewthis invention broadly comprises a miniature toy vehicle having a spiralspring powered wind-up mechanism wherein the spring is wound by verticalreciprocation or pumping of an operating bar having a rack of teethwhich is engageable with a series of gears to wind the spring duringdownward movement but which desengages during upward movement and whenretained in a raised position. There is also a spring means forretaining the operating bar in raised position. Finally, the gear trainconnects the spring with the ground wheels but includes means forautomatically breaking said connection during downward or windingmovement of the operating bar.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS mechanism during downward movement ofthe operating bar.

FIG. 4 is similar to FIG. 3 but shows the condition of the mechanismwhen the operating bar is in its raised position.

' DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now moreparticularly to the drawings reference numerals will be used to denotelike parts or structural features in the different views. A basicvehicle incorporating the drivemechanism is shown in FIG. 1 comprising avehicle body mounted on a front wheel assembly 11 and a rear wheelassembly 12.

Body 10 includes a chassis member 14 having side walls which journal anaxle 15 which jointly with wheels 16 forms the rear wheel assembly 12. Aframe for mounting the drive mechanism is denoted generally at 17 andcomprises a housing having side walls 18, a front wall 19, a rear wall20, a top wall 21, and flanges 22 at the bottom which are secured to thechassis 14. The drive mechanism for driving wheels 16 now be described.An operating bar denoted at 24 is mounted for vertical sliding movementin the rear portion of the housing 17 between the rear wall 20 thereofand a cross plate '25. Bar 24 has a cross handle 26mounted on its upperend and is provided with a series of vertically spaced rack teeth 27along its front side. A holder 28 in the bottom of housing 17 slidablyreceives a pin 29 projecting downwardly from bar 24 and encircled by acompression spring 30 which yieldably retains the bar in a raisedposition, as shown in FIG. 4.

A pair of opposing vertically elongated slots 34 are provided in theside walls 18 of member 17. These slots jointly and loosely journal ashaft 35 which carries a pinion 36 in mesh with the rack 27.

A shaft 37 is journaled'in the side walls 18. of frame gear 39 and asecond larger gear 46. Gear 45 is in constant intermeshing engagementwith gear 39.

A shaft 47 is loosely journaled in opposing upright I slots 48 in theside walls 18. Shaft 47 fixedly carries gear 49 and a larger gear 50,the former being longitudinally aligned with gear 46 for meshingengagement therewith and the latter being longitudinally aligned with agear 51 mounted on axle 15 for meshing engagement therewith.

The operation of the toy will now be described. In normal idle or nonusecondition the mechanism components are in the relative positions shownin FIG. 4 with the operating bar 24 elevated and holding the pinion 36in raised position in the slots 34. As the operating bar is depressedthrough manual downward pressure upon the handle 26, as shown in FIG. 3,the pinion 36 will move downwardly into/intermeshing engagement withgear 38 causing the fshaft 37 to rotate in a slots 48causing the gear 50to move out of engagement with gear 51.

By holding wheels 16 down against the floor surface the operating bar 24maybe reciprocated or pumped until the desired amount of energy has beenstored in spring 40, it being understood that there will be 'no driveconnection between the spring and the axle l5. When the spring 40 hasbeen sufficiently wound the handle 26 is released allowing bar 24 andopinion. 36 to return to the position of FIG. 4 under the compressiveforce of spring 30. As spring 40 unwinds the gear train through gears39, 45, 46 and 49 causes shaft 47 to rotate clockwise and it will dropslots 48 to the position shown in FIG. 4 bringing the gear 50 intomeshing engagement with gear 51 to drive the axle l5 and wheels 16 in acounterclockwise direction to propel the vehicle fowardly over the floorsurface F.

The toy thus provides a construction for simple and rapid of the drivingspring mechanism.

3 Having now therefore fully illustrated and described the invention,what I claim to be new and desire to protect by United States LettersPatent is: 1

1. In a miniature wheeled toy vehicle adapted to be powered over aground surface by a windable spring,

a. a chassis, r

b. said chassis supported on an axle carrying ground wheels,

c. a mounting frame on the chassis,

d. a shaft journaled on the mounting frame parallel to the axle andcarrying a spiral spring having one end fixed to the shaft and the otherend fixed to the mounting frame,

e. a gear fixedly mounted on the axle,

f. an operating bar supported in the mounting frame in upright positionfor vertical sliding movement and having a rack of gear teeth spacedvertically therealong,

g. said bar having a cross handle at its upper end and a pin on itslower end slidably seated in a holder on 4 the mounting frame with aspiral spring encircling the pin and held-under compression between thebar and mounting frame to yieldably bias the operating bar toward araised position,

h. a gear train of intermeshing gears connecting the rack to the axlegear and including gears fexed on the shaft carrying the spiral springto transmit downward movement of the operating bar to store energy inthe spiral spring when the bar is depressedand to transmit the energy inthe spring to rotational movement of the axle when the bar is released,and

i. said gear train including a pinion which is journaled in slots to bemovable between a non-intermeshing position with the axle gear when theoperating bar is moving downwardly and a position in intermeshingengagement with the axle gear when the bar is moving upwardly.

1. In a miniature wheeled toy vehicle adapted to be powered over aground surface by a windable spring, a. a chassis, b. said chassissupported on an axle carrying ground wheels, c. a mounting frame on thechassis, d. a shaft journaled on the mounting frame parallel to the axleand carrying a spiral spring having one end fixed to the shaft and theother end fixed to the mounting frame, e. a gear fixedly mounted on theaxle, f. an operating bar supported in the mounting frame in uprightposition for vertical sliding movement and having a rack of gear teethspaced vertically therealong, g. said bar having a cross handle at itsupper end and a pin on its lower end slidably seated in a holder on themounting frame with a spiral spring encircling the pin and held undercompression between the bar and mounting frame to yieldably bias theoperating bar toward a raised position, h. a gear train of intermeshinggears connecting the rack to the axle gear and including gears fexed onthe shaft carrying the spiral spring to transmit downward movement ofthe operating bar to store energy in the spiral spring when the bar isdepressed and to transmit the energy in the spring to rotationalmovement of the axle when the bar is released, and i. said gear trainincluding a pinion which is journaled in slots to be movable between anon-intermeshing position with the axle gear when the operating bar ismoving downwardly and a position in intermeshing engagement with theaxle gear when the bar is moving upwardly.